imULSE
A Periodic Newsletter of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission
14 • JUNE 2008
CEO OF PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
NEWEST COMMISSION MEMBER
ISSUE
Montreal-born Kenneth G. Sawyer, chief executive
officer of the Pittsburgh Penguins, has been
elected to the board of the Carnegie Hero Fund. In
announcing the election, Commission President
Mark Laskow said that Sawyer would serve
also on the Fund’s Executive Committee, which
is the Hero Fund’s awarding body.
Formerly the chief
financial officer of
the National Hockey
League, Sawyer
joined the Penguins
in 1999 as executive
vice president and
chief financial
officer. He was
named president
of the franchise
in 2003 and then
chief executive
officer three years
Mr. Sawyer
later. In addition to
overseeing all operations of the team, Sawyer
serves on the NHL’s Board of Governors.
Wesley James Autrey, Sr., New York’s subway hero. Photo reprinted with permission from Josh
Haner/The New York Times/Redux.
A year in the life of a hero:
‘Subway Superman’ enjoys the ride
Sawyer was raised in Montreal and is a 1971
graduate of McGill University there. After seven
years in public practice with Ernst & Ernst in
Montreal, Sawyer spent 14 years with the NHL,
where he served on all
of the league’s major
committees,
including
the collective
bargaining and
finance and marketing committees.
In 1991, he
and his wife
®
Shirley and their two sons
relocated to New Canaan,
Wesley Autrey didn’t hesitate last January, and he doesn’t hesitate now: The hero of the
No. 1 train says he’d put his life on the subway line one more time for a total stranger.
“Sure, I would do it all over again,” says the fearless construction worker, sitting in a
coffee shop just two blocks from the Harlem station where the “Subway Superman”
saved a seizure victim from death beneath the wheels of a downtown train.
While Autrey’s resolve remains unchanged, his selfless, split-second decision dramatically
altered his life. The father of two, to his surprise and delight, was catapulted to instant
celebrity and international acclaim in the last year. Autrey was welcomed twice at the
White House. He hung with Kanye West at a Super Bowl bash. He was honored by
Mayor Bloomberg, hosted by David Letterman, hailed by Donald Trump.
Oh, and one more thing, he confesses with a wide grin: Autrey received a lifetime
subscription to Playboy, courtesy of Hugh Hefner. Autrey was wearing a bunny logo cap
(continued on page 10)
By Larry McShane, Staff Writer• New York Daily News
(continued on page 2)
i n s i d e : FLORIDA MEDAL PRESENTATION • PRINCESS ANNE ATTENDS OPENING • MEDAL OF HONOR SOCIETY AWARD
board notes
‘Subway Superman’
(continued from cover)
DESERVED ATTENTION
—it still bears a grease stain from the train that barely missed him—when he rescued
Cameron Hollopeter. “It’s been an incredible year,” says the 51-year-old Harlem man.
By Mark Laskow, President
Carnegie Hero Fund Commission
The genial “Superman” is hardly more powerful than a locomotive, but he and
Hollopeter, 20, survived 370 tons of screeching subway car rattling one inch above
their heads. Autrey jumped from the platform at 137th Street after the disoriented
young man pinwheeled to the tracks as a Broadway local hurtled toward the station
last Jan. 2.
During a meeting of
the Hero Fund before
our centennial in
2004, we were
discussing “outreach”
activities, which,
inspired by the
centennial, we
expected to continue
after the celebration.
In the course of the
discussion, one of
the Commission members asked why we would seek
publicity. It was a good question, because the Hero
Fund had historically been a very quiet organization.
2
Autrey bear-hugged Hollopeter in the grimy trough between the rails. After avoiding
death by less than the length of a MetroCard, Autrey recalls, “I went to work.”
While he is a hero to the entire city, the stretch of Broadway near the subway stop
is Autrey’s personal “Canyon of Heroes.” Friends and fans greet him with hearty
handshakes and hellos. He rides the train each day to work from the station, where
the token booth clerk greets him by name.
Autrey arrives at the Bus Stop coffee shop straight from a Manhattan construction site,
clad in Army fatigue pants with a matching shirt and a white hard hat. His goatee,
flecked with gray, frames a ready smile. A small diamond earring is the lone sign of his
recent good fortune, although he carries a business card reading “Wesley Autrey Sr.,
Subway Hero.”
There were cultural and practical reasons we were
quiet. The deeds of the heroes instill considerable
humility in the Hero Fund Commission members and
staff. It just did not seem right to blow our own horn,
so to speak. On the practical side, the United States
and Canada are vast countries, and the Hero Fund
staff is small and very busy. Personal presentations
of the medals generate more public interest than our
press releases, but it would be impossible to arrange
a presentation for every award.
While Autrey embraced his celebrity, Hollopeter has never spoken publicly about the
incident. His last words on the subject came to Autrey after the train stopped. “Am I
dead?” Hollopeter asked. Autrey pinched him to prove he wasn’t. Autrey remains in
contact with Hollopeter, whose family sent a Thanksgiving bouquet of roses. The two
clans intend to have dinner in 2008.
“We have Superman and Batman, all these fictional characters,” Autrey says. “It’s very
good when you can find a real-life hero.” Autrey, hard hat in hand, can be found most
mornings at the 137th Street station.
Our centennial activities gave us confidence that we
could raise the public profile of the Carnegie Medal
and those who receive it. But, as that Commission
member asked in 2004, why should we?
(Reprinted with permission from the Dec. 16, 2007, edition of the Daily News. Autrey was
awarded the Carnegie Medal in April for his rescue act, which is detailed on page 9.)
There are several reasons. It is hard to rank them,
so, in no particular order:
TREASURER HONORED
• We think it is useful to remind our countries of the
extraordinarily creative philanthropy of Andrew
Carnegie. He didn’t just give money away, he
invented exemplary civic activities as part of the
process.
• The heroes deserve the attention and gratitude of
their communities. Very few of them seek that
attention, and most are eager to return to their
normal, everyday activities. We think their modesty
makes it all the more important for us to call some
attention to what they did.
• Finally, the deeds of these heroes are a needed
inspiration to our society. No, we do not mean to
encourage new heroic acts—Andrew Carnegie was
very plain on that point. Rather, their acts remind
all who hear of them that altruism, selflessness,
sacrifice, and a willingness to care for strangers
are essential binding elements in the civil society
we enjoy.
This good news we should spread.
Forty years of service on
the board of the Hero Fund
by James M. Walton, right,
was acknowledged by
Mark Laskow, president,
earlier this year. Walton
was elected to the board
on Jan. 30, 1968, and
since that time has served
terms on its executive,
finance, and membership
committees. In 1979, he
was elected treasurer of
the Commission, an office
he still holds. A graduate
of Yale University and
Harvard Graduate School of
Business, Walton is former
president of Carnegie
Institute and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and he is vice chairman of The Heinz Endowments,
Pittsburgh. Laskow gave Walton a certificate thanking him for his dedication at a luncheon at the
Flagler Museum, Palm Beach, Fla., in March. Walton joins three others of the Commission’s current
21-member board who have served at least 40 years.
ISSUE
14 • JUNE 2008
imULSE
FAMILIES RE-UNITE
(continued from previous column)
the mail. I told my father that I had
made the connection with his rescuer’s
descendents, and when my father turned
90 on Nov. 22, 2006, Westhafer sent him
a card. My father responded with copies
of newspaper articles about the rescue
and a heartfelt acknowledgement that if
not for Ward’s rescue act, the Preacher
Family genealogy would have ended some
82 years earlier.
Preacher held the Carnegie Medal awarded to the man who saved his father from drowning in 1924.
Families of hero and boy he saved
re-unite 84 years after the rescue
By Hugh J. Preacher, Jr., Frisco, Texas
I have had an interest in my family’s history for many years and two years ago made
an inquiry to the Hero Fund to see what records might be kept of past medal
awardees. I would not exist today if not for the actions of Edward J. Ward, who
saved my father Hugh James Preacher from drowning in Perth Amboy, N.J., on
March 30, 1924. Ward was awarded the Carnegie Medal for the rescue.
Hugh and Barbara Preacher met Ward
Westhafer, right, at Westhafer’s home in
Newbury, Mass., earlier this year. Westhafer’s
grandfather saved Hugh Preacher’s father from
drowning 84 years ago.
The Hero Fund’s first response was that
records on its medal winners beyond
the time of the award were generally
not kept, especially for acts that
occurred more than 75 years ago.
Shortly afterward, however, the Hero
Fund sent me a follow-up email
informing that the office had recalled
an inquiry about the same recipient two
years earlier. I was given the address of
the rescuer’s grandson, Ward Westhafer.
It seems that the interest of the rescuer’s
grandson and that of the rescued person’s
son in this case happened to coincide
with the interests of Hero Fund staff,
who must deal with countless names
and communications.
This past March 10, Westhafer and I met
for the first time, near Newbury, Mass.
Getting a chance to hold the medal awarded
to his grandfather brought me very special
feelings.
I sent Westhafer this email: I would love to make contact with you. Your grandfather saved
my father’s life. I live and work in England right now so email is great, or I can call you.
Within days, he replied: I am thrilled and surprised to hear from you. I had no idea the
folks at the Carnegie Hero Fund were so organized and thorough. I am sending a copy of
this email to them also, as thanks for their work.
My grandfather, Edward Ward, was always my hero. He never spoke of his rescue of your
father and, I’m sure, thought anybody in his position would have done the same thing. I
heard about his medal only after his death in 1959 when I was 10 years old. My mother
and grandmother told me the story and showed me the medal, which he left to me.
In the months that passed, Westhafer and I exchanged lots of information through
(continued next column)
My father was only 7 at the time of the
rescue. He fell from a rowboat into Staten
Island Sound at a point about a quarter-mile
from shore. The boat drifted away. Ward
dived from the deck of a passing ferryboat
and, heavily clothed, swam to him. My
father grabbed
Ward, and both
submerged. Ward
freed himself when
they surfaced and
took hold of my
father, who by then
was unconscious.
Several minutes
later, a man arrived
in a rowboat from
shore.
Ward was
Hugh J. Preacher, Sr.,
approaching
of Deland, Fla., on
his 90th birthday.
exhaustion and at
times had released
his hold on my father to rest. The man
helped Ward into the boat and then went
to my father, who was nearby, and took
him aboard. Ward and my father needed
hospital care, but they recovered. My
grandfather, David C. Preacher, gave Ward
a reward and in time Ward took a position
in the Perth Amboy Dry Dock, where
my grandfather was superintendent for
many years.
My father, now 91, lives in Florida, and on
Feb. 7 he and my mother Florence Elizabeth
Eymundsson Preacher celebrated their 65th
wedding anniversary. I believe Edward J.
Ward did a really good thing on March
30, 1924, and the Preachers—Hugh Sr.,
Florence, my brother Larry and I, and my
children Stephany and Hugh Michael—
will always consider the Ward families a
part of our family.
3
to the hero fund
GREAT PEOPLE
By Christopher R. McCrady • Carnegie Hero Fund Commission
I really enjoy reading the newsletter and learning about
all these great people—it certainly offsets the daily news.
On Feb. 13, my wife Jen and I were
privileged to attend the grand opening
of the Andrew Carnegie House in
Dunfermline, Scotland. The building,
newly erected to serve as headquarters
for the Carnegie Trust for the Universities
of Scotland, the Carnegie Dunfermline
and Hero Fund trusts, and the Carnegie
U.K. Trust, is appropriately located in
the town of Carnegie’s birth.
Judy Hunt, Aardvark Indexing, Ventura, Calif.
(And read she does! Hunt does the indexing for
imPULSE. The newsletter’s index appears on the
“Resources” page of the Hero Fund’s website,
www.carnegiehero.org.)
GRATEFUL HEROES
I want to express my gratitude for the assistance that
the Commission has provided me during my enrollment
in pharmacy school. During those years, I continued to
help out fellow students who struggled through various
classes by tutoring them individually, conducting review
sessions, and developing a tutoring program. I am
currently working at Florida Hospital as a full-time
pharmacist but intend to pursue a residency program
to allow me to better provide patient care and have an
opportunity to accept a teaching position after obtaining
a few years of clinical experience. If there is anything
I can do for the Commission, please let me know.
The day was sunny and unseasonably
warm, fit for the occasion. We were
picked up early in Edinburgh along with
our travel partners, Kathleen CheekMilby, representing the Carnegie Council
for Ethics in International Affairs, and
Hans and Agneta Lagerhorn, representing
Carnegiestiftelsen, the Swedish hero fund.
On arrival at the Andrew Carnegie House,
we were given a tour, and I was awestruck
by the building’s architecture. It is a modern edifice—which resembles a vessel in
shape —and is flooded with natural light.
Its most striking feature is the Tiffany
window that Carnegie commissioned as a
family memorial for Dunfermline Abbey.
The window now shines brilliantly on the
ground floor of the building.
Joseph A. Alaimo, Orlando, Fla.
(Alaimo helped to save a 10-year-old girl from drowning in the Atlantic Ocean at Palm Beach, Fla., when
a university student in 2004, and he subsequently
received scholarship aid from the Hero Fund.)
4
I was recently awarded with a beautiful Carnegie Medal.
It looks better than I could have ever imagined and is just
the thing I need to keep this experience in my memories
forever. The Carnegie Hero Fund and the people who
run it have been so generous to me and I cannot begin
to thank everyone enough. In addition to the amazing
medal, you have given me something this year that
has really helped me a lot; a scholarship to cover my
books and fees. Any financial aid goes a long way while
I am in school, and I would like to thank you personally
for helping me with such a generous contribution.
The British Royal Family and the Carnegie
Hero Fund Commission were both represented
at the dedication of Andrew Carnegie House,
headquarters for Carnegie’s four U.K.-based
trusts. Her Royal Highness Princess Anne is
shown above being escorted on the grounds by
Angus Hogg, chair of Carnegie’s U.K. Hero
Fund Trust. Below, the other attendees included,
from left, Kathleen Cheek Milby, Hogg; Hans
and Agneta Lagerhorn, and Christopher and
Jennifer McCrady of the Carnegie Hero Fund
Commission. The group is posed in front of
a Tiffany window, which was commissioned
by Carnegie as a family memorial for
Dunfermline Abbey.
Notable about the location of
the new structure is that it sits
at a corner of Pittencrieff Park.
The park was a private estate
during Carnegie’s childhood,
and he was prohibited from
playing there due to his
“unscheduled visits.” In 1903,
he purchased the 76-acre
property and gave it to the
town of Dunfermline to be
enjoyed by all citizens.
Hooman Nourparvar, Roswell, Ga.
(Nourparvar was cited by the Hero Fund last
September for saving a 9-year-old boy from drowning
in the Gulf of Mexico at Miramar Beach, Fla.,
on April 1, 2006. He is studying exercise and sport
science at the University of Georgia, Athens.)
A REALLY GOOD GUY
George W. Masters was a generous man who befriended
people from many different walks of life and differing
economic means. He was married to his wife Marge,
whom he loved dearly always, for 39 years and raised
five children along the way, devoting significant time
and love to his family and always putting us first.
He was an avid golfer and in his younger years also
played professional baseball in the Pittsburgh Pirates
organization. He was an entrepreneurial spirit and
business leader in the community who owned several
successful enterprises while also serving on the board of
directors of several southeastern Virginia community
After the tour, we were
honored by a very special
visitor, Her Royal Highness
Princess Anne, who declared
the Andrew Carnegie House
officially open with the unveiling of a plaque in the boardroom. She was introduced
by Angus Hogg, who chairs both the Carnegie Dunfermline and Hero Fund trusts,
and by William Thomson, Carnegie’s great-grandson who is also honorary president
of the Carnegie U.K. Trust. Princess Anne was extremely gracious, spending time
with each member of the represented trusts. We found her to be engaging, warm,
and inquisitive, and meeting her was an honor and the highlight of the trip.
(continued on page 5)
Hero Fund board member, Princess Anne
attend Carnegie U.K. headquarters opening
Attendees then proceeded along a beautiful pathway connecting the building to the
Glen Pavilion, where the Dunfermline Junior Chorus serenaded the Princess. She
(continued on page 10)
ISSUE
Carnegie Heroes, family members
meet at Florida medal presentation
Five awardees of the Carnegie Medal and family members of three posthumous
awardees formed a distinguished group as they met in Palm Beach, Fla., on a bright
Sunday afternoon in early March. Guests of the Hero Fund, they attended a luncheon
and a lecture at the ornate Flagler Museum, during which the medal was presented
to two newly named awardees.
The gathering, organized by the Commission’s director of external affairs, Douglas
R. Chambers, was the first of what might become a series of regional events for
medal awardees and their families, giving them the opportunity to meet other
Carnegie Heroes and share accounts touching on their acts of bravery. The idea was
conceived by Commission President Mark Laskow, who observed that awardees
attending the Hero Fund’s centennial banquet in 2004 seemed to enjoy rubbing
shoulders with each other.
imULSE
TO THE HERO FUND
(continued from page 4)
organizations. If a person’s funeral is any indication of
what he gave during his lifetime, then my father gave
much. Hundreds of people came from near and far to
pay their respects and share heartfelt best wishes with
his family. In the end, he was a really good guy who
loved, and was loved by, many. Twenty years since his
death we still miss him tremendously.
Jimmy Masters, Virginia Beach, Va.
(George W. Masters, Jr., then of Roslindale, Mass.,
was awarded the medal for his actions of Sept. 10,
1951, by which he saved two boys from drowning
in the Atlantic Ocean at Ocean Bluff, Mass. This
account of his life was supplied by the family at the
Hero Fund’s request and is posted on the page of the
Commission’s website that contains a fuller description
of the heroic act. Families of deceased awardees are
invited to share similar accounts. Hero Fund contact
is Douglas R. Chambers: doug@carnegiehero.org.)
Laskow participated in the Palm Beach event, as did the Hero Fund’s other officers:
Priscilla J. McCrady, vice president; James M. Walton, treasurer; and Walter F.
Rutkowski, secretary. Laskow took advantage of the opportunity to acknowledge
Walton’s 40 years’ service on the Commission board by giving him a framed certificate
at the luncheon. (See photo on page 2.)
REUNITED
God bless each and every one there at the Carnegie Hero
Fund Commission. I’ve personally kissed, shaken hands,
hugged, and shared special moments with Leon Walker
and John Hamilton, Jr., and their family. (The third youth
rescued) is presently incarcerated but will be released this
year. I’m planning a trip to his present institution soon.
I must be the happiest person in the entire world and
even as I cry big tears of joy I want to once again say
“thank you” to those who prayed for this special moment
for 34 long years. God blessed me to finally meet face
to face with two of the three men saved on Feb. 27,
1974. We are taking pictures and like little children
getting to know each other for the first time (smile).
Highlight of the get-together was Laskow’s presentation of the Carnegie Medal to
Floridians Paul D. Meeks of Port Orange and Charles T. Carbonell, Sr., of Tampa,
who were announced as awardees last December. Meeks, 64, attending with his wife
Linda and son Eric, was cited for his actions of Nov. 1, 2006, by which he pulled
the pilot of a small airplane from its burning wreckage after the plane crashed near
Meeks’s home. Carbonell, 51, who was accompanied by his wife Fonda and sons
Chas and Coby, saved a Tampa police officer who was struggling for control of his
gun with the man he was trying to detain. Carbonell and his wife were passing by
when they observed the roadside assault on Feb. 12, 2007.
Witnessing the medal presentation were Carnegie Heroes L. Rodger Currie (2006
awardee) of Palm Beach, Alvan C. Hirshberg (1962) of Palm Beach Gardens, and
Johnathan P. Burbea (2007) of Brookline, Mass. At age 81, Currie helped to save six
people from a burning yacht in Nantucket Sound in 2005 and is only one of seven
persons 80 or older to have earned the award in the Hero Fund’s 104-year history.
Victor Carl Edwards, Calumet City, Ill.
(At age 17, Edwards pulled three teenagers from a
lagoon in a Chicago park after they broke through
the ice on it. He also broke through but managed to
extract himself to perform the rescue, for which he
was awarded the Carnegie Medal.)
(continued on page 6)
The Beaux-Arts-style Flagler Museum of Palm Beach, Fla., was site of a gathering of Carnegie
Medal awardees and family members. First row, from left: Johnson and Tiffany Joseph; Kimberly
Wright, holding Kimelina Joseph; and L. Rodger and Patricia Currie. Second row, from left:
Chas, Charles, Fonda, and Coby Carbonell; Keark Wright; Stephen Finn; Paul and Linda
Meeks; Alvan C. Hirshberg; and Eric Meeks.
14 • JUNE 2008
GENEROUS LEGACY
I recently had the opportunity to read the September
2007 issue of imPULSE…and thought of my friend and
client Maryland Waller Wilson Shytles. Enclosed is a copy
of her obituary, which accurately chronicles her full and
interesting life. It does not, however, quite capture her
independent spirit, intellectual curiosity, and compassion
for others. Mrs. Shytles was awarded the Carnegie
Medal…for rescuing a drowning child from a nearby lake.
The Hero Fund, though, did much more for her. Her family
lost everything during the Depression, and times were
extremely hard for them. Had it not been for a Carnegie
scholarship, as Mrs. Shytles told me on numerous
occasions, she would not have gone to college. That
opportunity led her to a lifelong career of teaching,
writing, and editing.
Not only did she live a life of service to others, she
left the bulk of her estate to charities, including
a local hospice and men’s and women’s shelters,
Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children, Southeastern
(continued on page 7)
5
HEROES PROFILED
Florida medal presentation
(continued from page 5)
Daniel William Bailey (top photo) of Fort Frances, Ont.,
and James P. Hood of Alpine, Wyo., are the two latest
awardees of the Carnegie Medal to be profiled on the
Hero Fund’s website, www.carnegiehero.org. The feature
is an effort to provide a view of the awardee that is
broader than the recounting of the heroic act for which
the medal was given.
Any profile of Bailey would have to include a description
of the relationship this Ontario Provincial Police officer,
45, has with his work partner, Tyson, a 4-year-old, 80pound German Shepherd. Bailey was awarded the medal
last September for his actions of Aug. 1, 2006, by which
he helped to pull two women from their overturned and
burning sport utility vehicle in Central Elgin, Ont. He was
off duty at the time and visiting family in another part
of the province, where the accident took place. One of
the women died of her injuries, and the other was
severely burned but survived. Bailey too sustained
burns in the rescue, to his forearms.
Hood’s work partner? An Aerospatiale Lama helicopter
that he used on May 27–28, 2005, to effect the rescue
of three mountain climbers stranded on Mount Logan in
Yukon Territory. Done at an elevation of about 18,000
feet, the rescue was the highest ever performed by
helicopter in Canada. Hood, then 47, was working out
of Denali National Park in Alaska when he volunteered
his services on learning of the situation. The rescue
was not without considerable risk to this otherwise
experienced pilot: It took place in unfamiliar territory in
diminishing daylight and in thin atmosphere, which
imposed on the helicopter’s performance and required
Hood to use supplemental oxygen.
Burbea was cited for pulling a
man from the path of a commuter
trolley in Brookline in 2006.
See the article below for details
of Hirshberg’s and Meeks’s
heroic acts.
The event was undoubtedly bittersweet for the attending family
members—including parents—of
three awardees who died in the
performance of their heroic acts.
Stephen Finn of Lake Helen, Fla.,
represented his daughter Raimie,
who died at age 12 in 1984 while Charles T. Carbonell, Sr., center, of Tampa, Fla.,
attempting to save a boy from being received his Carnegie Medal from Commission
President Mark Laskow and Vice President Priscilla
struck by a train. The children
J. McCrady.
were in their school bus when it
became stranded on a railroad
track, and Raimie forfeited her safety to get the boy off the bus as a train approached.
Both children died in the accident.
Also present was Claire Slade, mother of Kenneth H. Slade, a 48-year old attorney
from Wellesley, Mass., who drowned in the Atlantic Ocean at Palm Beach in 2004
while helping to save his niece. Mrs. Slade, of Boynton Beach, Fla., had attended
previous Carnegie Hero lectures at the museum. Awardee Del’Trone D. Gomillia
was represented by his mother and her husband, Kimberly and Keark Wright of
Punta Gorda, Fla., and by his sister and her husband, Tiffany and Johnson Joseph.
At age 21 in 2004, Gomillia drowned in the Atlantic at Wilbur by the Sea, Fla.,
while attempting to save a man and his son who were taken out from shore by a
strong current. Gomillia is survived also by his young daughter.
6
The Flagler Museum is housed in the 55-room mansion—“Whitehall”—of Gilded
Age entrepreneur Henry M. Flagler (1830–1913), a contemporary of Andrew
Carnegie (1835–1919). Flagler, a partner of John D. Rockefeller in the formation of
Standard Oil, was the developer of the Florida East Coast Railway, which, stretching
to Key West, is largely responsible for establishing the state’s tourism.
Two Florida men cited for heroism following
aircraft crashes met at the Hero Fund’s
lecture in Palm Beach in March. Following
the crash of a twin-engine airplane near
his home in Port Orange in 2006, Paul D.
Meeks (left), a retired service technician,
responded from his garage to find the pilot
unconscious and strapped to his seat in the
burning wreckage. Seeing him move, Meeks
reached inside in an attempt to free his
safety belt and then withdrew for a knife.
With flames by then having spread to the
pilot’s clothing, Meeks reached in again,
cut him free, and dragged him to safety. The
pilot was hospitalized but died a few hours
later. Seeing Meeks receive his Carnegie Medal was another air-crash hero, Alvan C. Hirshberg
(right) of Palm Beach Gardens. In 1960, Hirshberg, then 34 and of Haverhill, Mass., a company
president, survived the crash of an airliner at LaGuardia Airport. He and the 73 other passengers
escaped the overturned and burning plane, but its four-man crew was trapped in the cockpit.
After running from the plane, Hirshberg returned to it and tried to break a cockpit window.
Working furiously, finally using a quarter from his pocket as a prying tool, he dislodged the
window and pulled the first officer out. The two men then pulled out the three remaining
crewmembers.
ISSUE
2006 Carnegie Hero receives
Medal of Honor Society award
Carnegie Medal awardee Jencie Regina Fagan of Reno, Nev., was named one of
the three 2008 recipients of the “Above & Beyond Citizen Honor,” an award given
annually in Washington, D.C., by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
She was one of 51 nominees for this year’s award, representing each state and the
District of Columbia. A teacher, Fagan was selected for her heroic actions of March
14, 2006, by which she stopped an armed assault at her school.
imULSE
TO THE HERO FUND
(continued from page 5)
Firefighters Burn Fund, Salvation Army and Ronald
McDonald House. Many people, including myself, were
touched by Mrs. Shytles, and many more will share in
the generous legacy of this hero.
Lesley R. Moore, Greenville, S.C.
HE DID THE RIGHT THING
Thank you for honoring my grandfather so many
years ago. The Commission set off many wonderful
achievements in my family that are too numerous to
list. My grandfather became a great engineer and
continued learning and achieving many things, thirsting
for knowledge all his life—Carnegie assisting with his
education all those years planted that seed. All of us
are deeply proud of him and learned from him and have
always attempted to do the right thing, just as he did.
My brother follows in his footsteps and is always at
the ready for anyone in need, and he is the honored
holder of our precious grandfather’s silver Carnegie
Medal. My grandfather was and remains a great source
of family pride and forever remains a man of honor,
and the Hero Fund is part of our family heritage and
pride also. Thank you for your good works, for it plants
seeds “to do the right thing” in ways that can never
be imagined or counted.
Three other Carnegie Medal awardees were also among the nominees: Marc J.
Ellison of American Fork, Utah, who helped to save a child from falling from a
steep canyon wall in 2006; David S. Parks of Weston, W.Va., who helped to save a
couple from their burning house in 2005; and Donald R. Gollwitzer of Grafton,
Wis., who saved a boy from a burning van in 2005.
The award was presented by
Gen. Colin Powell, former
Secretary of State, at a ceremony
on March 25 at the Tomb
of the Unknown Soldier in
Arlington National Cemetery.
In attendance at the ceremony,
which was hosted by Bryan
Williams of NBC News, were
more than 30 of the 105 living
recipients of the Medal of
Honor, the nation’s highest
award for valor in combat. The
Medal of Honor has gone to
3,465 since its inception by
Abraham Lincoln in 1861.
Fagan was notified of the
civilian award two weeks prior
to the event. “I was in awe,”
she said.
Cathy S. Wilson, Jacksonville, Fla.
(Grandfather Fleming C. Bower, then of Lewisburg,
Pa., received a silver Carnegie Medal and subsequent
scholarship assistance for saving a boy from drowning
after the boy skated into a hole in the ice on the
Susquehanna River at Milton, Pa., on Jan. 21, 1909.
Bower read a set of encyclopedias in retirement and
died at age 91 in 1972.)
BENEFITS BEYOND EXPECTATION
My 96-year-old mother’s father, William M. Orr, was a
Carnegie Medal winner in 1913 for saving a young boy
from drowning in Glade Spring, Va. Grandfather used
the thousand-dollar award grant to buy land on which
he established the Orr home place. Without the award,
I very much doubt that he and my grandmother would
have ever amassed a sufficient amount to do so.
Their home was a working farm that sustained his
widow and 11 children after his death, to appendicitis,
at age 42. It fed and sheltered his family through the
Great Depression, two world wars, and all the other
hardships a large, fatherless family of that era had to
endure. Each summer of our “city mouse” childhood,
my siblings and I joined our cousins at grandmother’s
for three months of “country mouse” shenanigans—the
memories of which still delight me. The farm was his
daughter’s home until her recent death, after which it
was sold outside the family.
Based on the foregoing, I would observe that the
award of the medal in this instance surely surpassed
Mr. Carnegie’s intent and expectations. As I have utilized
Carnegie-funded libraries throughout the United States,
it seems that Carnegie foundations have played an
important role in my own life.
Fagan’s heroism took place
early on a school day when a
14-year-old boy entered Pine
Carnegie Medal awardee Jencie Regina Fagan received
Middle
School, Reno, where
a Congressional Medal of Honor Society award from
Fagan is a gym teacher, and
Gen. Colin Powell, former Secretary of State.
fired shots, injuring two classmates. Her instincts took over as she approached the boy and convinced him to put
the gun down. Fagan then detained the boy until police arrived. “There was no
other choice but to do what I did,” she said.
Along with the Carnegie Medal and the Above & Beyond Citizen Honor, Fagan
was named the Red Cross Hero of the Year for Northern Nevada and had her
picture on a Wheaties cereal box.
The two other awardees of the 2008 Above & Beyond honor are Don Schoendorfer
of Orange County, Calif., who is an advocate for the disabled and the disadvantaged,
and Matthew Miller of Fridley, Minn., who rescued survivors of a bridge collapse in
Minneapolis last summer.
The Above & Beyond award is given to U.S. civilians who demonstrate “service over
self” by having made a difference in the lives of others through extraordinary heroism or
extensive commitment. More information is available on www.aboveandbeyond365.com
or through the Congressional Medal of Honor Society at 843-884-8862.
– Melissa A. Spangler Case Investigator
14 • JUNE 2008
Sandra Horton, Dallas, Texas
7
latest awardees
of the
carnegie medal
Since the last issue of imPULSE,
the following 22 individuals have been
awarded the Carnegie Medal, bringing the
total number of recipients to 9,173 since
the Hero Fund’s inception in 1904.
The latest awards, which were announced
on April 10, are detailed on the Commission’s
Website at www.carnegiehero.org.
The next announcement of awardees
will be made on July 2.
Kenneth D. Gurnon, 48, of Newport News, Va., died
July 17, 2006, attempting to save Corey A. Tewalt, 11,
from drowning in the Atlantic Ocean at Narragansett,
R.I. Corey was walking on large rocks along the shore
when she slipped, fell into the water, and was pulled
out. A member of her party, Gurnon, a transportation
security supervisor, immediately entered the water
and swam to her. He made it almost to shore with her
before they were separated and pulled back out.
Arriving rescue personnel returned them to shore.
Corey survived, but Gurnon drowned.
8
School principal and district administrator John A.
Klang, 49, of Cazenovia, Wis., died after saving school
personnel and students from assault on Sept. 29, 2006.
A 15-year-old boy armed with a loaded shotgun and
handgun entered the school in Cazenovia and pointed
the handgun at two teachers. When Klang confronted
and struggled with him in a hallway, the boy fired
repeatedly. Although he was struck and mortally
wounded, Klang disarmed the boy, casting the gun
away, and detained him. Klang died several hours later
of his gunshot wounds.
Calif., helped to keep a 52-year-old woman from falling
from a sixth-floor balcony in Encino, Calif., on Jan. 5,
2006. In a suicide attempt, the woman threatened to
drop from the balcony to a paved parking lot. Responding,
Mireles and Marron entered the balcony and saw the
woman lying along its open edge. Although she greatly
outweighed him, Mireles lay atop the woman, who
then took her and Mireles’s upper bodies over the edge.
Going to the floor, Marron grasped Mireles by a leg and
attempted to pull him back. A firefighter then entered
the balcony, grasped Mireles by the belt, and pulled him
and the woman away from the edge.
Theodore Lidgett, 59, a retail associate from Redding,
Calif., rescued his coworker Judith R. L. Schmidt, 19,
from a knife assault on Feb. 16, 2007. At night, Schmidt
had just entered her vehicle in a store parking lot in
Redding when a masked man approached and held a
knife to her throat. Seeing the assault occur, Lidgett
reached inside the car and pulled on Schmidt with one
hand, freeing her, while pushing the assailant’s knife
hand away with the other. When the assailant followed
Schmidt from the car, Lidgett slammed the door against
him repeatedly.
Katie M. Corrado, Gachino Galante, and Michael H.
Schreiber teamed up to help to save Gregory A. Steirer
from drowning in the Atlantic Ocean at Beach Haven,
N.J., on May 28, 2006. While swimming, Steirer, 26,
called for help when caught by a strong current in the
very cold water. Hearing him from the beach, Corrado,
23, a marketing assistant from Lansdale, Pa., and her
friend, Galante, also 23, a college student from Rydal,
Pa., immediately swam out to him, but they too became
caught by the current. Schreiber, a 50-year-old attorney
Neil Maycock, 40, a company president from
Centerport, N.Y., saved Michael C. Johnston from
drowning in Centerport Harbor, off Long Island Sound,
on Feb. 25 of last year. While walking on ice atop the
harbor, Johnston, 23, broke through and was unable to
free himself. Walking with two dogs on shore, Maycock
entered the harbor in open water that was clogged
with sheets of ice. Pushing the ice from his path, he
swam to Johnston. Joined by one of the dogs, Maycock
swam Johnston toward shore, again pushing sheets of
ice away. Both left the water safely. (See photo.)
Ex-Marine Jonathan H. Johnson, 34, a sales manager
from Colorado Springs, Colo., rescued Michael A.
Strauch from a knife-wielding assailant in Colorado
Springs on Jan. 1, 2007. While walking along a street
late at night, Strauch, 25, was stabbed in the back and
chest by the assailant. Johnson witnessed the attack
and approached. He struggled against the assailant,
who threw him into a wall of a building, causing him
to hit his head hard. Recovering, Johnson disarmed the
assailant and held him for police. Strauch and Johnson
required hospitalization for their wounds.
Los Angeles Police Officers Mark Mireles, 38, of
Burbank, Calif., and Edwin Marron, 25, of Reseda,
from Linwood, N.J., swam out to them with two short
surfboards. Steirer and Galante each lay atop the
boards, which Schreiber started to tow in as Corrado
swam to a nearby jetty, where she was aided from the
water. Galante gave up his board to Schreiber, allowing
Schreiber the use of both hands to paddle as they
continued in. Emergency responders returned them to
the safety of shore.
Systems engineer Jean Patrick Policape, 44, of Skokie,
Ill., rescued his neighbor Joy V. Kora, 54, from his burning
house on Dec. 26, 2006. Kora lay unconscious on his
living room floor after fire broke out in a bedroom and
filled the structure with dense smoke. Policape responded
to the house, where he entered through the front door
and, below the smoke, saw Kora. Despite nearby flames
that issued outside the structure to a point above it,
Policape crawled to Kora, grasped him by a leg and his
torso, and dragged him to the front door. Kora was
severely burned but survived.
Norman Jeffery Ringseth, 44, died attempting to
rescue his neighbors Edwin A. and Iris M. Pike from their
burning mobile home in Reno, Nev., on Aug. 11 last
year. At night, Pike, 71, and his wife, 72, were at home
after fire broke out there. Ringseth, a disabled sales
clerk who lived across the street, saw the flames and
responded to the scene although he was recovering
from a broken leg. He was last seen running to the side
of the structure as flames spread quickly, abetted by
high wind. Firefighters found Ringseth’s body in the
Pikes’ master bedroom, along with those of Pike and
his wife. All had died of asphyxiation.
Automobile mechanic Shawn M. McLean, 37, of
Newark Valley, N.Y., saved Deanna R. Hanyon, 17, from
her burning car after a highway accident in Maine, N.Y.,
on Dec. 20, 2006. Restrained by her safety belt, Deanna
was suspended upside down in the driver’s seat of the
car, which was overturned in a ditch and aflame.
McLean stopped at the scene, broke out a window on
the passenger side, and crawled into the vehicle. He
maneuvered to a point below Deanna, unfastened her
safety belt, and then pulled her with him as he moved
back to the window and out of the car.
Timothy Michael Barry, 54, an assistant cameraman
from Ventura, Calif., died while helping to save his
grandniece Priscilla L. Yothers, 4, from drowning in the
Pacific Ocean at Ventura on Dec. 26, 2006. Priscilla
was carried into rough surf by the backwash of a
wave. Responding from a nearby house just off the
beach, Barry ran onto a rock jetty at the scene and
then, fully attired, entered the water, swam to Priscilla,
and supported her. Another man swam out to them and
returned Priscilla to safety. Arriving rescue personnel
recovered Barry but could not revive him.
Awardee Neil Maycock of Centerport, N.Y.,
saved a man from drowning in the icy waters
of a harbor with the aid of his Golden Retriever,
Alfie. At the age of 3, Maycock himself was
saved from drowning by a man…and his dog,
a Labrador Retriever. Photo, by Steve Silverman,
courtesy of Newsday.
Cristina Carrera Chavez, 21, a caretaker from
Thousand Palms, Calif., and Katherine M. Dumas, 44,
of Cathedral City, Calif., saved Jack Brownstone, 87,
from drowning in the lake of a condominium complex in
Rancho Mirage, Calif., on May 4 last year. Brownstone
remained in his car after it entered the lake and began
(continued on page 9)
ISSUE
14 • JUNE 2008
imULSE
Steelworker Michael J. Carney died Aug. 24, 2004,
saving John L. Ressani from being struck by a
falling temper mill roll in the Vandergrift, Pa., plant
where the men were coworkers. Changing the two
stacked rolls of the mill with another man, Ressani,
48, and Carney, 50, of Freeport, Pa., were rigging
the top roll to an overhead crane for repositioning.
The crane began to move unexpectedly, taking the
14-ton roll toward Ressani by its secured end.
Carney shouted a warning and then approached
and pushed him hard from the roll’s path. Before
Carney could reach safety, the unsecured end of
the roll dropped, pinning him to the floor and
Jon R. Sallee of Nicholasville, Ky., helped to save killing him.
James M. Polehinke, 44, from the cockpit of a
regional jet that crashed and burned after takeoff Conrad Fourney, 48, of Boise, Idaho, saved Sarah
R. Cox from drowning after a kayaking accident on
in Lexington, Ky., on Aug. 27, 2006. Severely
the Payette River in Banks, Idaho, on Nov. 26,
injured, Polehinke, the jet’s co-pilot, remained
restrained to his seat. Sallee, 26, an airport public 2006. Cox, 57, was navigating rapids in the river
safety officer, approached the wreckage and saw when the bow of her kayak became pinned by
a man inside attempting to free Polehinke. Sallee rocks, trapping her in the rushing water. Others,
including her husband and members of a responding
also entered the cockpit, through a gap at the
rescue squad, made repeated attempts to reach
nose of the jet. He and the other man freed
her. An expert kayaker, Fourney, who was a flooring
Polehinke, but with difficulty, flames just feet
away. They pulled him from the cockpit to safety. contractor by trade, was alerted. Responding, he
borrowed a kayak and backed to the rock at which
The 49 other passengers and crewmembers of
Cox was stranded. He then leapt to the rock and
the jet died in the accident.
pulled Cox free. A rescue boat took them to safety.
Ross P. Moore, 40, of Dwight, Ont., saved a man (See photo.)
from drowning in the Oxtongue River at Dwight on
March 15 last year. While attempting to cross the
ice on the river with his snowmobile, a 23-year-old
man broke through thin ice at a point about midway
across. The vehicle sank in water seven feet deep.
Moore responded from his nearby home and walked
across the ice to the man. He then removed his
sweatshirt, extended one of its sleeves to the man,
and pulled him atop the ice, which was cracking
beneath them. They walked safely to the bank.
LATEST AWARDEES
(continued from page 8)
to submerge. After witnessing the accident, Chavez
waded into the water and, although she could not
swim, paddled out to the car. She pulled Brownstone
through the window of the driver’s door, but they
then struggled, submerging. Meanwhile, Dumas,
director of security at the complex, arrived and,
although not fully recovered from recent surgery,
swam out. She grasped Brownstone and with
Chavez returned him to wadable water. All left
the lake safely.
‘28 ATTACK BY PET BEAR
SPURRED HEROIC RESCUE
Eighty years ago last month, Archie G. Lennon, 24,
and Earl W. Norman, 19, were part of a crew working
in a remote, forested area west of Olympia, Wash.
They shared a cabin near the work site, and after
midnight on May 21, 1928, a 400-pound male bear,
kept as a pet by a couple living nearby, entered
the cabin and began to attack Norman in his cot as
he slept.
Wesley James Autrey, Sr., a 50-year-old
construction worker from New York City, saved
Cameron P. Hollopeter, 20, from being struck by
a subway train in that city on Jan. 2 last year.
Hollopeter, 20, fell from the platform and lay on
the track on which a train was approaching.
Autrey jumped to the track and tried to move him
back to the platform. The train bore down on
them as Autrey then positioned Hollopeter
between the rails and lay atop him. The front of
the train passed over them before the train
stopped. Uninjured by the train, the men were
removed after power to the track was shut down.
Carnegie Medal awardee Conrad Fourney
of Boise, Idaho, was an expert kayaker who
Truck driver Columbus Cook, 49, of Jacksonville, gave of his time and skill to save another
Texas, saved Darrion D. High, 38, from his grand- kayaker from drowning. Sadly, Fourney
mother’s burning house in Jacksonville on April 13 himself died in a kayaking accident nine
last year. High was in a bedroom of the one-story months later. He is survived by his son,
house after fire broke out in a room across the hall Noah J. Bader-Fourney, shown here, who
and filled the structure with dense smoke. Cook
witnessed his father’s heroic act. Fourney
responded from a residence nearby and twice
kayaked in Costa Rica, Chile, and Zambia
entered the burning house, but heavy smoke forced before owning a rafting company in Idaho,
him out. He entered a third time, found High, and and he passed on his love of the outdoors to
Noah, 10. Photo submitted by the family.
picked him up and carried him to safety.
Lennon awoke but, seeing only a “dark form,” did not
immediately know what was attacking Norman. He
struck the bear with a pair of boots but to no effect,
and, likewise, a butcher knife he used against the bear
also proved to be useless. After leaving the cabin for
a weapon and returning with an ax, Lennon struck
the bear repeatedly. The bear turned on Lennon briefly
before succumbing to the ax blows. Norman was
seriously injured but recovered after hospitalization.
The photograph above was taken the day after the
attack and shows Lennon with the body of the bear
and the ax.
For his actions, Lennon was awarded the Carnegie
Medal in 1930 and a grant of $1,000 with which he
started an electrical business. Lennon died in 1986,
and earlier this year, the Hero Fund provided his grandson, Robert Lennon of Cottontown, Tenn., a bronze grave
marker in the likeness of the medal. The insignias (see
photo, page 11) are available at no cost to families of
deceased Carnegie Medals awardees.
9
CEO OF PENGUINS
(continued from cover)
Conn., where Sawyer began working in the NHL’s
New York offices. In 1993, he launched his own
consulting firm specializing in the sports industry.
John W. Blazek, Jr., 91, of Masontown, Pa., died April 6.
Blazek was awarded the medal in 1957 for his actions of a
year earlier by which he saved a fellow coal miner who was
pinned after a roof fall in a mine at Carmichaels, Pa. Blazek
crawled under tons of unstable debris to rescue the man, Percy
A. Hooper, who yet survives. As testament to his humility and
selflessness, his obituary reads, Blazek did not even mention
the rescue to his family on the day it occurred. An account of
the rescue in its 50th anniversary year was featured in the
December 2006 issue of imPULSE. “I’d go tomorrow if they’d
let me,” Blazek said at the time, about returning to work in
the mines.
The opportunity to be part of a franchise turnaround
brought Sawyer to Pittsburgh, where he joined Mario
Lemieux and his new ownership group. The Penguins
had just emerged from bankruptcy and had the chance
to bring stability and a long-term future to the storied
but troubled franchise.
During Sawyer’s tenure with the team, it survived
a year-long work stoppage, resulting in a new partnership with the players that includes long-sought
features such as a salary cap and revenue sharing.
The team emerged with a roster that is considered
to have the best young players in the league. Its
games are consistently sold out.
John F. Erjavec, 90, of Euclid, Ohio, died March 30. Erjavec
was a security guard in 1981 when at age 63 he attempted
to save a coworker from being struck by a car. The men were
working in a church parking lot in Euclid when the stolen car,
which was being pursued by police, entered the lot at high
speed. Erjavec pulled his coworker partially from the path of
the car, but the car struck the coworker and pinned him against
another vehicle, causing injury that led to a leg amputation.
Erjavec recovered from minor injuries and received the
Carnegie Medal the following year.
Sawyer led efforts to secure financing for a new
arena, construction of which is underway, with the
facility to open in 2010. The future of the Penguins
as a healthy member of the NHL and international
ambassador for the Pittsburgh region is now assured.
10
John W. Blazek, Jr.
Carolyn M. Kelly, 86, of Shreveport, La., died Feb. 17. Kelly
was awarded the medal at age 81 in 2003 for helping to save
a woman from drowning in a pond, after the car in which the
woman was a passenger began to sink about 50 feet from the
bank. Kelly, a retired medical technologist, responded from her
nearby home, swam out to the woman, and supported her at
Carolyn M. Kelly
the car until an arriving firefighter took her to safety. At the
time of her act, Kelly was the oldest woman ever to earn the medal, and she remains only one
of seven who became Carnegie Heroes after the age of 80. She and her daughter Caroline K. Tait
were guests of the Hero Fund at its centennial banquet in 2004, and a profile of her is featured
on the Commission’s website (www.carnegiehero.org), which also includes her obituary.
HEADQUARTERS OPENING
(continued from page 4)
seemed to be overjoyed by seeing the
children and spoke to each one. Chief
Executive Nora Rundell of the Carnegie
Dunfermline and Hero Fund trusts did a
wonderful job organizing the day’s festivities,
which for us included a tour of the
Dunfermline City Council building by
the Councilor of Dunfermline District
Council, Joe Rosiejak. Joe also gave us
a quick tour of Pittencrieff House, the
childhood home of General John Forbes,
founder of Pittsburgh.
THE HEIGHTS OF DELIGHT
For the past four years, Dr. Frances L. Boyd, left,
an assistant professor of education at St. Francis
College in Loretto, Pa., has brought teachers and
teachers in training to the campus from surrounding
schools and universities to participate in a daylong
program designed to inspire and foster a love of
reading among children. This year’s event, titled
“The Heights of Delight,” was held in April, and
the Hero Fund was asked to provide one of its
awardees to relate the account of his rescue. Craig
Allen Cross, right, of Cumberland, Md., who was
awarded the Carnegie Medal for his 2002 rescue
of an elderly man from his burning home, agreed
to participate.
The newly constructed building is a vessel-shaped
structure that was designed to fit into its park-like
setting, and it features sustainable design elements,
such as carbon-neutral heating. “I think Carnegie
would approve of the new building,” was the
assessment of William Thomson, Carnegie’s greatgrandson. The photos of the building and the
Princess were taken by Jessie Spittal, former
trustee of the Hero Fund and Dunfermline trusts.
friends remembered Cross, who recently earned a master’s degree in
education at Frostburg, Md., State University, with
tuition aid from the Commission, not only related his
harrowing act to a rapt audience, but he then spent several minutes discussing his philosophy of teaching.
Many of the teachers in training thanked him for his inspiring words, and Dr. Boyd, who was equally
impressed, immediately booked him to participate in another project at the college. Cross assisted the
Hero Fund in a similar program in March of 2006, when he spoke to an assembly of more than 800
students of Indiana, Pa., Junior High School. Details of that appearance are in issue No. 6 of imPULSE
(March 2006).
ISSUE
the quotable
14 • JUNE 2008
imULSE
continuum
Nature has not provided a
means by which any man can
use riches for selfish purposes
without suffering therefrom.
There is only one source of true
blessedness in wealth, and that
comes from giving it away for
ends that tend to elevate our
brothers and enable them to
share it with us.
GRAVE MARKERS Bronze grave markers
(above), cast in the likeness of the Carnegie Medal,
are available at no cost to the families of deceased
awardees. They are designed for mounting on stone
or bronze memorials. Contact Susan Marcy
(susan@carnegiehero.org) or write her at the
address given below.
— Andrew Carnegie, 1879, “Round the World,” p. 356
WELL “ABOVE AND BEYOND”
MEDAL REFINISHING The Hero Fund will
refinish Carnegie Medals at no cost to the owner.
The medals are to be sent to the Hero Fund’s office
by insured, registered mail. Allow a month for the
process. The contact is Myrna Braun
(myrna@carnegiehero.org).
OBITUARIES Written accounts of the awardee’s
life, such as contained in an obituary, are sought for
addition to the awardee’s page on the Commission’s
website. Contact Doug Chambers
(doug@carnegiehero.org).
ANNUAL REPORTS Copies of the Hero Fund’s
2007 annual report are available, as are those of the
centennial report of 2004, which lists the names of
all awardees from 1904 through 2004. Contact
Gloria Barber (gloria@carnegiehero.org).
COMMEMORATIVE MEDAL A silver
medal struck in the likeness of the Carnegie Medal
to commemorate the 2004 centennial of the
Hero Fund is available for purchase through the
Commission’s website.
CARNEGIE HERO FUND COMMISSION
425 Sixth Avenue, Suite 1640
Pittsburgh, PA 15219-1823
Toll free: 800-447-8900
E-mail: carnegiehero@carnegiehero.org
Website: www.carnegiehero.org
Two public safety officers from the Lexington, Ky., area were cited by the Hero Fund for going well
above and beyond the call of their respective duties following the crash of a regional jet in
Lexington on August 27, 2006. The jet, carrying 50 passengers and crew, crashed on taking off
from Blue Grass Airport and burned in an adjacent field. On duty nearby, Bryan Thomas Jared
(second from right), 30, an officer with the Lexington Division of Police, was the first to arrive at
the scene. Despite intense flames consuming the wreckage, Jared crawled through a hole in the jet’s
nose to find the co-pilot, unconscious and severely injured, still in his seat. While Jared struggled to
free him, Jon R. Sallee (left), 28, an officer with the airport’s department of public safety, arrived at
the scene and joined Jared in the cockpit. With great difficulty, they freed the co-pilot and dragged
him from the wreckage. The other 49 persons aboard the craft were killed. Jared and Sallee each
received the Carnegie Medal for their rescue, at a meeting of the Lexington Fayette Urban County
Council in late April. The medals were presented by Walter F. Rutkowski (right), the Hero Fund’s
executive director, and Chief Ronnie Bastin (second from left) of the Lexington Division of Police.
Sallee is now a deputy with the Jessamine County, Ky., Sheriff’s Department.
“A CENTURY OF HEROES” The centennial
book describing the first 100 years of the Hero
Fund is available through the Commission’s website
(www.carnegiehero.org).
11
ISSUE
14 • JUNE 2008
imULSE
from the archives WELL DONE
P
eople may think “adult” when they hear the word “hero,” but, as the Hero Fund has
shown over the course of its 104 years, heroism is not a monopoly of any age group.
Twelve-year-old Henry T. Mathews exemplified that on March 26, 1912, in Dothan,
Ala. At 10 o’clock that morning, 2-year-old Benjamin J. Grant, Jr.—“Little Ben”—was
playing beneath a back porch when he fell into an abandoned water well. At least 25
feet deep, the well was only 13 inches in diameter. Ben, uninjured, began to cry.
Because of the narrowness of the well, none of the adults who gathered at the scene
dared attempt to enter it. Each young boy who was asked to go into the well, including
“the most daring boy in town” according to the Hero Fund agent’s 1915 report, also
refused. Three blocks away, Henry learned of the incident, and, when asked if he
would attempt to rescue the boy, he agreed.
At the scene, many of the men could not hide their desperation and many of the women
were crying openly, joining Ben’s continued crying. Henry, however, showed neither
emotion nor hesitation when some men tied a rope around him and then lowered
him head first into the well. Ben had been trapped for more than an hour.
Despite an electric light that had been lowered into the well, conditions were not
hospitable: The walls were slimy; the air, foul; and the bottom appeared to be mud.
Henry reached down and grasped Ben’s hands and yelled to the men to pull them up.
Before they had been pulled half way, however, Henry lost his grip on Ben’s slimy
hands, and the boy fell back to the bottom. The electric light had broken, and he was
immersed in darkness.
Scrambling to locate another length of rope, the men formed a loop and gave it to
Henry to wrap around Ben. Lowered a second time, Henry struggled in the darkness
imPULSE is a periodic newsletter of the CARNEGIE
HERO FUND COMMISSION, a private operating
foundation established in 1904 by Andrew
Carnegie. • The Hero Fund awards the CARNEGIE
MEDAL to those throughout the United States and
Canada who risk their lives to an extraordinary
degree while saving or attempting to save the lives
of others. • The Commission also provides financial
assistance, which may include scholarship aid
and continuing grants, to the heroes and to the
dependents of those awardees who are disabled or
die as the result of their heroic acts.
Carnegie Hero Fund Commission
425 Sixth Avenue, Ste. 1640 • Pittsburgh, PA 15219-1823
412-281-1302 • 800-447-8900
www.carnegiehero.org
Address Service Requested
to arrange the rope around Ben,
whose straw hat had a brim that
was almost as wide as the well.
Henry pulled the hat off and yelled
to be lifted. After tossing the
straw hat aside, Henry told the
men to lower him a third time.
They did so. Henry put the rope
around Ben and again yelled to
be lifted. The two boys were
removed safely from the well.
Henry was recognized immediately
Henry T. Mathews (left), with Benjamin J.
as a hero by the residents of
Dothan, and three years later the Grant, Jr., in a photograph that appeared
Commission awarded him a bronze in the Montgomery Advertiser after Henry
medal and an offer of $2,000 for was awarded the Carnegie Medal
educational purposes. After service
in the Alabama National Guard, he attended the Georgia-Alabama Business College
and eventually obtained a degree from Woodrow Wilson College of Law, Atlanta. He
practiced law until his death in 1969.
“Little Ben,” who grew up to be managing editor of U.S. News & World Report, never
forgot his rescuer. According to Henry’s daughter, Joyce M. Pattillo of Harrisonburg,
Va., Ben and his family sent him a Christmas card every year.
— Marlin Ross, Case Investigator
Further information is available on-line
or by contacting the Commission.
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submissions for publication, and your
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Carnegie Hero Fund Commission
425 Sixth Avenue, Ste. 1640 • Pittsburgh, PA 15219-1823
Telephone: 412-281-1302 Toll-free: 800-447-8900
Fax:
412-281-5751
E-mail: carnegiehero@carnegiehero.org
Website:
impulse@carnegiehero.org
www.carnegiehero.org
MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION
A. H. Burchfield III
Elizabeth H. Genter
Thomas J. Hilliard, Jr.
David McL. Hillman
Linda T. Hills
Mark Laskow
President
Christopher R. McCrady
Priscilla J. McCrady
Vice President
Ann M. McGuinn
Nancy L. Rackoff
Frank Brooks Robinson
Dan D. Sandman
Kenneth G. Sawyer
Arthur M. Scully, Jr.
William P. Snyder III
Jerald A. Solot
Sybil P. Veeder
James M. Walton
Treasurer
Thomas L. Wentling, Jr.
Alfred W. Wishart, Jr.
Carol A. Word
Non-Profit
Organization
U.S. Postage
PAID
Pittsburgh, PA
Permit No. 2461